Sting is being sued for 'MILLIONS of pounds in lost royalties' by former bandmates in The Police

DAILYMAIL.COM ^ | 24 August 2025 | SAM LAWLEY,

[dennisw]

Sting's former Police bandmates are suing the frontman for millions of pounds in missing royalties.

The singer, 73, was handed a High Court writ by the group's guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland.

The 'substantial' damages claim comes after many years of bitter legal disputes.

A source told The Sun: 'This has been coming for quite some time. Lawyers tried repeatedly to reach an out-of-court settlement but hit a stalemate.

'Andy and Stewart decided there was no alternative than court so pressed the button. They say they are owed millions in lost royalties.'

London's High Court lists the legal case under 'general commercial contracts and arrangements'.

Sting is down as a defendant under his real name, Gordon Matthew Sumner, while his company Magnetic Publishing Limited is also listed as a defendant.

The star is believed to earn £550,000 a year in royalties from smash hit Every Breath You Take alone, the fifth best-selling song of the '80s.

Bandmates Summers and Copeland, however, were not handed songwriting credits on the single.

New wave band The Police were formed in London in 1977 and shot to stardom with their second album Reggatta de Blanc,

Copeland founded the band in 1977, joining up with Sting when he saw his charisma with the jazz fusion band Last Exit. They then approached agile rock guitarist Summers.

But immediately there was understood to be a three-way power struggle. Sting said previously: 'We didn't go to school together or grow up in the same neighbourhood. We were never a tribe.

'We care passionately about the music and we're all strong characters and nobody would be pushed around. We fought over everything.'

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; Health/Medicine; Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: andysummers; lawsuit; music; royalties; stewartcopeland; sting; thepolice

[Gay State Conservative]

My Back Pages...Dylan at his best. I’ll have to check out Crenshaw’s cover.

[LeonardFMason]

How much money do you need? The answer is always the same. JUST A LITTLE BIT MORE.

[farm_kid]

These people think that physics makes universe revolve around them. Sting theory.

[spincaster]

What did Stink do?

[sgt_lau]

People often confuse royalties with publishing. Thats the money maker.

[Dr. Sivana]

I’m only familiar with two things he’s done...Spirits In The Material World and the acoustic version of Fields of Gold.Both great,great songs.

I was a sarcastic Senior on the High School Prom Committee, when I suggested that "Don't Stand So Close to Me" be the theme song. That wasn't well received.

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

My favorite songwriting credit was for King Crimson drummer Bill Bruford, who got a songwriting credit for "admirable restraint" on the live improvisation "Trio", which was included on the album Starless and Bible Black.

Bruford chose not to play at all during the improv, leaving only the bassist, guitarist, and violinist on the entire song. The band thought his decision not to play on what turned out to be a rather delicate acoustic improv was so critical to the success of the piece that they gave him a credit despite him not playing at all.

[Secret Agent Man]

Over in the UK, the police call the police...

[Secret Agent Man]

More financially intelligent than the other two...?

[SamAdams76]

Decent point.

[HonorInPa]

Sounds like a Democrat question

[KarlInOhio]

Well, that all depends upon the size and extent of the new country you are attempting to establish.

And on what planet. You have to hit a hundred billion to be taken seriously when discussing taking over another planet.

[Steve_Seattle]

"Sting wrote the lyrics but Summers and Copeland made the music and where ripped off by Sting, back in the day (1980s). Why were these two so stupid to allow this?"

I agree. A song is much more than a piece of sheet music, which is only the skeleton of a song. Even if only one person wrote what appears on the sheet music, that is not the song in its entirety. There is also the arrangement, the choice if instruments, solos, harmonies, and so forth. Those things are what make up the totality of a song. In pretty much any rock band, it is the band as a whole who should be given credit for "writing" it. Maybe the allocation could be done on a percentage basis by giving an extra share to the person who wrote the lyrics and came up with the general melody.

I have a DVD about the making of The Band's "brown" album, which I thnk was their second. They make it clear that the makeup of the songs - with a lot of testing this or that effect - was a creation of the entire band even if Robby Robbertson wrote most of the lrics.

[dennisw]

Robby Robertson robbed his (brothers) band members of songwriting credits. This is common knowledge. Levon Helm was always very angry about this. Rick Danko less so. Robby claimed 100% songwriting on many Band tunes, that were really co-authored, when the other guys were too stoned (heroin) to do anything about it.

Helm hated his guts!

As far as the Police go, when you are a trio you are practically living on top of each other. You cannot avoid anyone. So of course Summers and the drummer Stewart Copeland contributed to the tunes Sting claimed sole authorship for.

[Steve_Seattle]

Yes, I should have said that even though the DVD depicted The Band’s songs very much as group efforts, Robby Robertson did get almost all of the official songwriting credit. They’re all gone now, but that DVD would have been a good courtroom exhibit in a suit over songwriting credits.

[NewMexLurker]

The star is believed to earn £550,000 a year in royalties from smash hit Every Breath You Take alone, the fifth best-selling song of the '80s.

If that number is accurate, it 's really kind of astounding. That works out to be over two thousand dollars every single day, for a 42 year old song.

[GaltAdonis]

“You have to hit a hundred billion to be taken seriously when discussing taking over another planet.”

.

I wonder how much spare change the Chinese have on hand right now…

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

Rush kept the same three guys for 40 years, with no real infighting and the guys remaining close friends. But all money was always split evenly. The drummer wrote all the lyrics, and the guitar player and bassist/vocalist wrote the music. There was some bleedover, but the fact that the money was never an issue is likely one of the reasons they always played nice.

That, and they were all Canadians.

[dennisw]

The Doors also split money four ways.